Recipe for Success? Or Disaster... Abandoned

Backdated to September 2020
First Year Potions Class 1
With @Simon Kincaid

Kenna arrived early at the Potions classroom, having scarfed down her lunch in a tearing hurry. She wasn't sure whether she was more nervous or more excited about this class. True, she did understand quite a lot about most potions ingredients, having spent most of her childhood sloshing around forests and bogs and studying every creature she could find. But then again, she was absolutely rubbish at cooking, and potions seemed very much like cooking. She wasn't sure if it was the whole 'following directions' thing that threw her off, or if she was too easily distracted by other things to concentrate on a simple recipe for so long. Probably both.

Regardless, Kenna was determined to do well in this class. Well, all her classes, really. But this was the one that worried her the most. It didn't help that the classroom location in the damp dungeons was not particularly welcoming. Even standing outside the doorway Kenna was getting a chill. She would have to start wearing her winter robs to this class soon if it didn't warm up.

After a few minutes, the doors opened, and Kenna and the other early birds filtered into the room. She wasn't the only one to look around in wonder. Unlike the other classrooms, the Potions room was set up to be very interactive, with small brewing-stations at each table. The walls of the classroom were lined with various vials filled with all sorts of colored liquids. An open store-closet at the back of the room showed myriad intriguing ingredients that Kenna longed to explore. Would they actually get to brew a potion today? Hope mixed with fear again, as premonitions of an exploding cauldron and burnt off eyebrows flashed before Kenna's mind's eye. I'd better have a good brewing partner... she thought, trying to banish the worries from her mind.

She didn't know any of the other students who had arrived so far, so Kenna just picked a table in the middle. Dropping her bag on the floor, she began arranging all her supplies on the table. Cauldron... scales... vials... that was everything, right? She pulled out her textbook and notebook, as well as ink and quill. Goodness, but this class required a lot of set-up! It was a good thing Kenna had come early. If she'd been in a rush she probably would have knocked glass all over the stone floor. At least now she had some time to catch her breath and look around. It was hard to tell if the other students were nervous or not. Some of them already had friends and were chatting casually as if this were nothing new. She wished she had someone to chat with... that might make this whole day easier.